Hello! I'm a new member. I have been trying to lucid dream about 2 months now. I have have spontaneous lucid dreams in the past. Here is my problem. When I dream at night my subconscious throws me dreams signs (every night) that slap me in the face to become lucid but my conscious mind is not getting it. I do reality checks and try to be aware of my surroundings during the day. I have very good dream recall. I'm stumped.Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.

I have the same problem. Keep at it though. The idea is to make reality checks habit in the waking world, so they are habit in a dream too. But you need to also be intimately familiar with your dream signs in order to have this trigger you to do a RC.

I'd make a list of standard dream signs that you always run into and make sure you know it by heart. I have several standard ones. You probably do too, but I'm sure yours are different.

It's interesting because in the two recent lucent dreams I've had, I did not recognise a dream sign per se, and I didn't explicitly do a RC. I just felt that it was a dream. Then I did the clarity tricks to get locked in.

Once you get lucid, the next trick is to stay lucid for more than a minute or two. It's hard to maintain concentration.

Stick with it though. Although I've been having semi-lucid dreams all my life, going fully lucid is amazing.. Literally the whole scene brightens like someone turned on a spot light. Colors are more vivid too. And talking to a dream character is a surreal experience....

Keep at it and don’t give up but also don’t stress to much. Clicking when you see a dream sign is only one issue, you need to have some awareness and be looking for signs before you can find them. Like being drunk (don’t know how old you are) you are not aware of being drunk so your behaviour feels normal to you. There is a point where you will say to yourself, I have had a few and feel good and know I am on the edge of having to much. That is the point where you can have behaviours and observe those behaviours as well. To me that is the point, whith out being able to observe yourself you will struggle to get lucid.

I was in a motel last night and the door would not close and lock. It annoyed the hell out of me and it was in late in the evening, bad light and I had 2 bags of food in my hands so couldn’t get to the light switch to see what was happening. I really struggled to get the door shut tight - was I dreaming or not?

Who are you I asked, the reply "dont be silly, we are your daughers" many years before they were born

The classic one is rubbing your hands together. That works well for me.

Other's say "clarity now" out loud. I've done that too after I rub my hands together just for good measure.

I've found that recognising your are dreaming won't make you fully lucid. I do what I call "locking in" by the hand rubbing and/or "clarity now" request. When you do this you'll get an immediate visual and sensory response. You'll definitely see it and feel it when you go full on lucid. It's sort of like on the starship enterprise when it goes into warp drive and all those stars streak by. There's a visual and a bit of a rush. Also things really are clearer. For me, it's sort of like someone removed a veil that was over my head.

For me- emotionally I get a pleasurable rush of excitement and energy.

Hope this helps you picture it.

Once you are lucid, if the dream starts to fade, apparently spinning will help. I haven't tried that yet.

Thanks to you all for your tips. Hoping I will go lucid soon, but who knows. I will definitely try the clarification "tricks". If there is anything else someone thinks of related to the original question just let me know.

I am researching this problem too, last night I was dreaming that I was in Santa Barbara, Ca watching a tsunami wave coming at the hotel I was staying out. As soon as I said that I was dreaming, everything became super clear and beautiful. I saw the people running from the beach area up toward the hotel and I got caught up in the stampede up the hill. I was back to having a non lucid interesting dream of survival. Dream signs can trigger lucidity but staying there is another issue. I am looking into another method using a mulitiple setting alarm clock that will beep at preset times so that I can get use to waking up and going back to sleep into the Wild state. I will post something on this if it works out.

I haven't had to worry yet about trying to stay lucid in a dream - it has yet to happen (at least recently). Let me know if the alarm clock beep works for you. I might try it on nights where I don't have to go to work the next a.m. (I have to get up at 4am) I am thinking of trying a WILD since I see hypnogogic images almost every night - I meditate prior to sleep. I was originally using the meditation to relax but at about a year I started seeing colors, scenes, faces etc. Didn't know what it was until I started researching on the internet. I found that I could control - to a certain extent - the images I was seeing. Cool stuff. Not really sure how to transition from that into a lucid dream. I did read some of the posts on this site and I'll give it a whirl. Don't know if I should switch tracks - trying to WILD that is - as it seems from what I am reading that it is more difficult.

timcal wrote: I am looking into another method using a mulitiple setting alarm clock that will beep at preset times so that I can get use to waking up and going back to sleep into the Wild state. .

The other good thing about setting your alarm clock is that you'll get to remember more dreams. I find I normally only remember one a night otherwise.

It is disruptive to my sleep but I have discovered an amazing variety of dreams I never knew I was having. This is a great way to appreciate your own dream creativity, get a chance to find more dream signs and generally get more material for your dream journal.

I have been working on this dream discovery process for a few weeks and have had a total of 4 lucid dreams. I had two last night! But they are very short so far.